April 2013 marked two years since our final episode. All the submissions for our planned second episode in the audio zine format fell through, and so the podcast was silently retired in June 2011.

You may have noticed that none of the download links work any longer and that you can no longer subscribe using iTunes or RSS. It was costing more money every month that podcast hosting continued, and after 18 months it just couldn’t be justified any longer.

Bridging the Rift audio zine’s second issue will be on the subject of inspiration.

Do you have an interesting take on how Doctor Who, its spin offs, its characters or its fandom inspired you or changed your life?

Has a particular character, storyline or concept inspired your career? Are you a better person because of the message of the show? Has it inspired your creativity in ways you never imagined? Has being a part of fandom changed your life for the better?

We’re also looking for Doctor Who fan fiction and fan music to feature in this issue. Do you have a favourite story or song that captures the theme of inspiration? Perhaps featuring the Doctor or another character inspiring someone to change their life or being inspired themself to create something amazing? Do you find a particular story or song particularly inspiring? Please send us your suggestions for fan creativity to feature and we’ll get in contact with their creators.

We had some wonderful feedback for our first issue and we’re keen to do more, but Bridging the Rift can’t go on without submissions from its listeners. If you’d like to hear more from us, please send in your submissions or pass on this message to those who might have submissions of their own!

Bridging the Rift relaunches! Our new audiozine format mixes articles by people from different parts of the fandom with fan fiction story readings and Time Lord Rock songs. The debut issue features contributions from fan artists Lady Yate-xel and Draculasaurus, podcaster Chip of the Two Minute Time Lord and Chicks Dig Time Lords co-editor Lynne Thomas. Our stories and songs explore different aspects of series five.

In just one week we will have the first new episode of Bridging the Rift as an audiozine. Listen to the promo for a sneak peek at what we have in store and start getting your ideas ready for future episodes. We need your ideas, your articles and your thoughts to keep this podcast going.

If you have a submission proposal, please send a description via our contact form. We’re looking for articles and fiction under ten minutes.

We return from our unannounced hiatus to wish you season’s greetings and announce our imminent relaunch with an exciting new ‘audio zine’ format coming in 2011.

To give you a little preview of things to come Nat, Erik and Katrina read the first three parts of a longer Eleventh Doctor Christmas fan fiction story by LiveJournal user betawho, Wherever It’s Christmas.

Show Notes

Introduction

Bridging the Rift is changing, plans are afoot to reboot our universe and regenerate into an all new format with less of a focus on the content of each Doctor Who, Torchwood or Sarah Jane series and more of a perspective on the fandom, its activities and its culture. We’re planning to be a little less like a discussion podcast and a little more like an ‘audio zine’, with several shorter segments across each ‘issue’. And much like zines, we’re looking for writers to submit personal stories or articles on fandom’s culture and history, correspondents to report on different types of fan activities and for more of a variety of fan creativity to feature within our virtual pages.

Wherever It’s Christmas by Betawho

Fan fiction will be a regular feature of our new format, so as a preview of things to come and a festive present from us to you, we give our first Bridging the Rift fan fiction reading, the first three parts of a seven part Eleventh Doctor Christmas story by LiveJournal user Betawho:

Amy hung the last decoration and stepped back. It was the most beautiful Christmas tree she’d ever seen. And it was entirely covered in junk.

Well, not entirely, she admitted. They had managed to find one box of old Victorian Christmas ornaments. But the rest was pure improv, sparkly bits ranging from fluid links to fiber optic cables that the Doctor had wired up to flash in different colors. They had even made some tinsel out of some silvery, shredded alien packing material.

Call For Content and Contributors

@ 17 minutes – Nat expands on our new audio zine format and calls on potential contributors to get in touch.

If you’ve particularly enjoyed reading any Doctor Who, Torchwood or Sarah Jane Adventures fan fiction that you think would be a good fit for Bridging the Rift please do get in touch, and if you could write articles or essays, could be a correspondent for a particular subject or have any other suggestions for content that might fit our new fandom-focused audio zine format do please pass them on by email to our GoogleMail address, in the comments of this blog post or directed @BridgingTheRift on twitter.

We’d love to show off the talents of fan artists by including different cover artwork for every issue, so if you’re an artist or photomanipulation wizard who’d like to get involved, and especially if you could help us develop a new logo, please do drop us an email.

At long last, it’s here! The second part of our massive, sprawling discussion of the latter half of series 5. Last time, we discussed the Silurian 2-parter and “Vincent & The Doctor.” The conversation continues here as we dive into “The Lodger” and the 2-part finale, “The Pandorica Opens / The Big Bang.”

Show Notes

Introduction

@ 1 minute – A brief intro and apology from Erik.

General Discussion

@ 1 minutes 40 seconds – We pick up where we left off, with a discussion of Gareth Robert’s quirky “The Lodger.” And yes, the towel scene gets mentioned. As the story was based on a 10th Doctor comic strip, we also talk about how well this episode fit the 11th Doctor, and which other Doctors we think could have done well with this story.

@ 15 minutes 15 seconds – We dive into “The Pandorica Opens,” and the conversation naturally meanders over into its conclusion “The Big Bang,” and we try to hit all the high notes: River Song! Young Amy! Plastic Rory! The Doctor Dances…poorly! Plus, Nat has a very interesting theory as to what the story’s really all about. Also, stupid people are stupid.

@ 1 hour 2 minutes 26 seconds – An open call for feedback, especially a request that you bring our attention to any excellent Series 5 inspired creativity for our next episode.

@ 1 hour 3 minutes 25 seconds – We trock out to the excellent song “Doctor Who” by Parry Gripp. You can download this song, and many others, at http://parrygripp.com. They also have songs available via iTunes, and they have a great YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/ParryGripp.

If you have any feedback about anything we’ve discussed, you can send messages on Twitter directed @BridgingTheRift, comment on this blog post or send short MP3 feedback to our GoogleMail address. You can also “like” us on Facebook and leave comments there.

In something of a continuation from our last episode, we decided to review the episodes of the second half of Series 5. Little did we know that the discussion would rage on for over 2 hours! So, we decided to split the episode into 2 parts, the first of which you find here. Nat, Katrina, and Erik natter away about “The Hungry Earth,” “Cold Blood,” and “Vincent and The Doctor.”

Show Notes

Introduction

@ 1 minute – Who we are.

General Discussion

@ 1 minutes 45 seconds – An open call for Season 5 inspired creativity, especially items on personal blogs or other out of the way places.

@ 4 minutes 50 seconds – We begin with “The Hungry Earth,” which gets compared to an EastEnders intro to The Phantom Menace. Whether that’s a good or a bad thing, we’ll let you decide. Plus, did the BBC make a mistake in letting everyone know that the Silurians were back?

@ 15 minutes – We start to move on in earnest to “Cold Blood,” which comes in for a bit more criticism than we’re accustomed to dispensing. In particular, did the Silurians get the relaunch and introduction to a new generation that they deserved?

@ 23 minutes 45 seconds – Rory’s temporary death and the nature of the crack get looked at from all sorts of angles, prompting a lively discussion about “soft rewrites.”

@ 39 minutes – “Vincent and the Doctor” takes its turn in the spotlight, with the space chicken, Vincent’s illness, and the historical inaccuracy of the episode prompting strong reactions all around.

@ 59 minutes – A promise of more to come…

If you have any feedback about anything we’ve discussed, you can send messages on Twitter directed @BridgingTheRift, comment on this blog post or send short MP3 feedback to our GoogleMail address. You can also “like” us on Facebook and leave comments there.

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Disclaimer

Doctor Who, Torchwood, The Sarah Jane Adventures and the TARDIS are owned and trademarked by the British Broadcasting Corporation and BBC Worldwide. All Doctor Who Universe imagery is copyright its creators and the BBC.

Bridging The Rift Podcast is entirely a fan endeavor, we are not connected to the BBC in any way and claim no ownership of Doctor Who, its spin off shows characters, creatures, monsters, imagery and designs.

Our theme music is Pop Tart by CptCrunch, used under the terms of the Creative Commons Sampling Plus license